Manila stuns Tribu Sugbu

The visiting Bacchus-Harbour Centre Manila pounded on Tribu Sugbu's very poor shooting performance and defied the latter's daring comeback to escape with a 72-68 victory in last Wednesday's game of the Panasonic-NBC National Championship at the Minglanilla Sports Center.

It was a painful home defeat by Tribu Sugbu, which is bidding for the top two spot in the South division. Its final hope to accomplish its dream is to beat Hapee-Dewfoam Mantawi Sparkling Knights this Sunday to forge a possible three-way tie with the Iligan Crusaders.

The loss was the second by Tribu Sugbu at home after establishing a league record of 16-game win steak at its turf. Aside from that, the defending champion, which had its worst losing streak in the NBC with three-in-a-row, fell to 7-5 in the South division.

Bacchus, playing against Tribu Sugbu in one of its five remaining road games, somewhat got a morale-booster of sort with the win that improved its win-loss record to 3-7.

Nani Epondulan, who led Bacchus with 19 points, opened the game with a rare four-point play, 4-0. It somehow became an ominous signal for Tribu Sugbu especially when Boyet Guerrero missed two straight undergoal attempts.

Tribu Sugbu replied with a 7-0 bang, but it never tasted the lead from that point on as it suffered an almost incredible shooting woes, perhaps brought about by the long lull that rendered their scoring range astray.

After two periods, Tribu Sugbu converted only two triples - one each from Alex Cainglet and from Glenn Cabanes- which was not enough to bring the gap closer with Bacchus ending the half with a 14-point spread, 39-25.

Still, Tribu Sugbu was a pity sight in the third period when it allowed its Manila visitors to open up an 18-point lead, 49-31.

Tribu Sugbu, however, did not roll down and just die as Marvin Mercado showed his heroics, scoring 10 straight points in the third period alone to trim the deficit down to 12 at 42-54 cushion heading into the final period.

Tribu Sugbu further pulled within 49-56 on a triple by Lowell Briones. Another triple by Ronaldo Bucao put Tribu Sugbu within three, 63-66, in the final 1:00 mark of the game, but Bacchus made the finishing touches by scoring well from the free throw line.

"Sinwerte lang kami sa zone defense namin," said Bacchus coach Lawrence Cheongson, who admitted that it might take a longer time for his team to jell because his players are coming from different schools such as Letran, San Beda and JRU along with two Fil-ams in Francis Raushmayer and Rich Hardin.

Tribu Sugbu coach Al Solis, who just steered the NBC selection to the 9th Crown Prince basketball title in Thailand, said no team can win a game with that kind of shooting that they even missed point blank attempts.

It was only in the fourth period that they regained their shooting touch, but it was too late for them as they were racing against time.

"Basta zone ang depensa nya dili ka mag-igo sa gawas, mapilde gyud ka. (If you're playing against a zone defense and you're not hitting well from the outside, chances are you lose the game), Solis said.

Mercado and Briones had 12 points each from Tribu Sugbu, while Cainglet finished with 10 points. The missing factor was Doroteo Almacin who was held off to only seven points with one triple.

Bacchus' smallest man from the bench in Cebuano Carlo Brett Reroma scored 10 points and was one of the factors of the victory because of excellent quarterbacking. SCORES Bacchus (72) - Epondulan 19, Remora 10, Raushmayer 10, Enrile 7, Hardin 6, Cordero 6, Gamboa 6, Coyukang 2, Hudencial 2, Sta. Cruz 2] Tribu Sugbu (68) - Briones 12, Mercado 12, Cainglet 10, Bucao 8, Guerrero 7, Almacin 7, Ursal 3, Mangubat 3, Cabanes 3, Ferraren 2, Ignacio 1 Quarterscores: 23-11; 39-25; 54-42; 72-68